A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.

A series of thirteen Instagram shorts, based on Healy's 'word of the day' calendar, in which we are given a word and its definition and then treated to a short clip from The Nice Guys (2016) that relates in some way.

A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild F.B.I. Agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and the Mafia.

It's 1949 Los Angeles, the city is run by gangsters and a malicious mobster, Mickey Cohen. Determined to end the corruption, John O'Mara assembles a team of cops, ready to take down the ruthless leader and restore peace to the city.

Julian, a drug-smuggler thriving in Bangkok's criminal underworld, sees his life get even more complicated when his mother compels him to find and kill whoever is responsible for his brother's recent death.

In the late 1960s/early 1970s, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.

After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.

Storyline

A mysterious and mythical motorcycle racer, Luke, (Ryan Gosling) drives out of a traveling carnival globe of death and whizzes through the backstreets of Schenectady, New York, desperately trying to connect with a former lover, Romina, (Eva Mendes) who recently and secretly gave birth to the stunt rider's son. In an attempt to provide for his new family, Luke quits the carnival life and commits a series of bank robberies aided by his superior riding ability. The stakes rise as Luke is put on a collision course with an ambitious police officer, Avery Cross, (Bradley Cooper) looking to quickly move up the ranks in a police department riddled with corruption. The sweeping drama unfolds over fifteen years as the sins of the past haunt the present days lives of two high school boys wrestling with the legacy they've inherited. The only refuge is found in the place beyond the pines.Written by
StudioCanal

Technical Specs

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Goofs

On the last car chase, the chasing officer (Avery) describes Luke's direction as heading west on Stanford. Luke then makes a left turn which would mean he would be heading south, but Avery says he is now heading north on Plymouth. See more »

User Reviews

Aside from knowing it had quite a few famous names in it and that people seemed to generally say it was a good film, I really knew nothing about this film, from the plot right through to the structure or anything. This is a really good way to come to the film because the story really gripped me throughout and when things happened, they genuinely took me by surprise in the most part and really assured me that I should not assume anything about the film or the characters. This sense of trusting the film to take me where it wanted made for an engaging experience and I do suggest you try to come to it the same way.

The plot starts with a motorcycle rider who quits his job in the carnival and stays in one town where he learns he fathered a child with a fling a year ago. This decision puts him in a difficult place and it is from this place that we start a story that brings in multiples of characters, moves our focus around among them and ultimately spans several decades in the telling. The delivery of this story is consistent and engaging with a constant air of tension and simmering anger or frustration in the collection of men on which it focuses. As individual scenes it is surprisingly satisfying and although it has a longer running time, it went by very quickly. With all the characters we have conflict, anger, desperation and other similar themes within them, although the source of these vary.

The approach of the delivery is very much like a novel to get into and feel through – it is an approach that worked very well but does have a downside. The weakness is that it doesn't build so much as sustain and those who need a strong conclusion that one would normally get with a film, may be disappointed that it is much more subdued and final in the style of a novel. To me the strengths were worth this cost but I can understand why some come away feeling like any individual moment is better than the film as a whole, because perhaps it does play a little fragmented and doesn't come together as a complete film. The look and feel of the film is really well balanced and matches the overall tone, with a patient, haunting violence throughout the cinematography, the direction, the score and of course the performances.

It is hard to pick one performance from the pack but for me the smaller detail of Mendes' pain is great – particularly in a film focused on the male characters. She has so much in her character and she brings that pain out really well – not in an Oscar showcase but just in the small cracks, like in real life. Gosling is very silent and does draw you in even if he has comparatively little to do. Cooper is strong in his role and he changes through the film well – at first a comparatively straight forward character but has more to him. Cohen I didn't care for as a character, but his spoilt kid is still well played while DeHaan did well alongside him. The supporting cast is dense with talent from Clohessy, Greenwood, Liotta, Ali and others – they come and go but help the feel of a bigger story.

The Place Beyond the Pines is not perfect as a film but it is really engaging as a novel. It is fragmented a little and sustains its pace rather than building, but it works at almost every moment to draw the viewer in. The stories told offer a variety of things but consistent across them is that the delivery of the film and the performances within them are professional and effective. Not an easy sell, but a film worth seeing.

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